Page:Pleasant Memories.pdf/363

There was a glorious sunset on the sea,
Making the meeting-spot of sky and wave
A path of molten gold. Just where the flush
Was brightest, as if Heaven's refulgent gate
One moment gave its portals to our gaze,
Just at that point, uprose an awful form,
Rugged and huge, and freezing with its breath
The pulse of twilight. Even the bravest brow
Was blanched, for in the distance others came,
Sheer on the horizon's burning disk they came,
Attendant planets on that mass opaque.

They drifted toward us, like a monster-host,
From death's dark stream. High o'er old ocean's breast,
And deep below, they held their wondrous way,
Troubling the surge. Winter was in their heart,
And stern destruction on their icy crown.
So, in their fearful company the night
Closed in upon us.
                        The astonished ship